Popular animation series 'The Simpsons' did not predict the date or year of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, fact-checkers have said. The false claim that the show, legendary for its eerily farseeing prophecies, foretold the Queen's death has been the subject of dozens of doctored videos and memes that have gone viral on TikTok and other platforms.
In one of the doctored TikTok videos, with more than 26 million views, a cartoon version of Queen Elizabeth II can be seen lying in a casket below a plaque that reads 'Elizabeth II: 1926-2022'. The clip also shows a sticker, superimposed in the background of actual footage from 'The Simpsons', that displays the date September 8, 2022, the day of the Queen's death.
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Several videos, since the Queen's death, have been going viral with the fake image of her lying in a coffin. Most of these clips on TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and elsewhere, falsely state that 'The Simpsons' predicted the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
"The Simpsons have done it again," says one TikTok video with more than 16 million views.
However, we want to tell you that no episode of 'The Simpsons' ever included the dates of the Queen's death, according to fact-checking organisations including PolitiFact and Lead Stories. A previous hoax used a similar image of Donald Trump lying in a coffin to falsely claim the series had predicted his death due to Covid-19.
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'The Simpsons' have previously famously predicted other major events. In a 2000 episode, the series included a joke that Donald Trump would become president of the United States.
And in 1998, 'The Simpsons' foreshadowed Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, almost two decades before Disney snapped up 21st Century Fox.
Meanwhile, other debunked claims about 'The Simpsons' predicting the future include that the show foretold the Covid-19 pandemic and the deadly tragedy at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival last year in Houston, according to fact-checking site Snopes.
